


Something Fishy

by chinchillasinunison



Category: Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Genre: Developing Friendships, Gen, Interspecies Awkwardness, Selkies, Sirens
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-10
Updated: 2018-09-08
Packaged: 2019-01-15 20:48:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12328608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chinchillasinunison/pseuds/chinchillasinunison
Summary: A golden-scaled siren finds a peculiar object glittering on the seafloor. Little does he know that picking it up sets up a chain of events that will rock his entire world.





	1. Chapter 1

Ralph fished the object out of the sand and eyed it curiously, holding it up to the light above. It was made of some sort of plastic and wiring, with thick glass set inside that flashed as he moved it about. A glint such as this was what drew him to the object in the first place, during what was now something of a routine swim. It was like the sort of glass he’d seen bottles made out of, but he'd seen bottles and bits of them plenty of times before, and this… thing… definitely wasn't a bottle. Then... what was it?

He determined in examining it that the strange plastic stalks on either side could fold inward, and he used this information to clip the object onto his necklace. The flow of the current shifted, and there was a small clink as the strange thing bumped into the tiny conch shell charm that also hung from the necklace. Ralph looked down at it with that sort of anxious excitement one gets from discovering something completely new. Then, with a flick of his tail, he swam off to find the others to share his prize. Who knows? Maybe one of them would be able to identify it.

Ralph swam until he came back to the formation of rocks that the makeshift pod had turned into a base. He saw Jack’s feathery striped tailfin resting just below the surface of the water, the rest of him presumably on the rocks. Ralph swam up beside him stealthily and peaked his head above water.

The first thing he noticed was Jack’s voice, high and soft and lilting with song. Perched on the rocks before him was a flock of seagulls, who stood helplessly transfixed. Jack reached a scaly, clawed, webbed hand pensively around the neck of the closest bird.

“Hey Jack!”

Ralph had hardly yelled it, but nevertheless Jack yelped out at the sudden intrusion, breaking the trance the birds were under and spooking the majority of them away. Luckily, when his flight-or-flight response kicked in, his hand instinctively closed and snapped the one gull’s neck quite easily, so the exercise wasn’t a total loss. Still…

“ _RALPH!_ ” Jack screamed as he turned around, his fins and the spines that ran along his back flaring out, “ _WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?!_ ”

Ralph let himself drift away from the rock a little, “Well, I was on my usual swimming route, when I--”

“Of course that’s what you were doing,” Jack rolled his eyes, “Lollygagging around while I was actually doing something useful-- trying to feed us!”

“I was not lollygagging!” Ralph exclaimed indignantly with his arms crossed, “You know well enough I’m looking for one of our pods!”

“And just how well is that working out for you?” asked Maurice, swimming around from the other side.

“Well, not… great, but--”

“Exactly! You’re wasting your time, Ralph. It’s been weeks and you haven’t found anything. They’re probably long gone by now. Face it. We just have to keep looking after ourselves!”

Ralph looked him over for a second. “What’s gotten into you that’s got you all serious all of a sudden? You’re half clownfish. They’re supposed to be funny!”

“Well, the fact that you’re still at it is a joke enough as it is,” said Maurice with a slight smirk that quickly disappeared, “Besides, I get cranky when I’m hungry. Speaking of…” He looked up at Jack expectantly.

Jack was tossing the dead bird up in the air repeatedly, with one hand, wearing quite the bemused grin. He laughed a little when he finally spoke, “Alright, Mo, just for that insult, it’s all yours.”

He threw the bird towards Maurice, but before the latter could catch it, what seemed to be a piece of the rock jutted out and snatched it right out of the air, nearly giving all three of them heart attacks. The “rock” and the lumpy section of “stone” around it shifted in color and texture to reveal itself to actually be a camouflaged Roger. He made quick work of biting off the gull’s head and swallowing it down whole.

“...how long were you lying there waiting to do that?” asked Maurice after a few seconds of awed silence, “I’m not even mad that you’re eating my food, I’m just impressed!”

“As long as I needed to,” said Roger, “It's what being a good hunter’s all about. You have to wait for the perfect moment to strike.”

“Well, yes, that's a part of it,” Jack replied, “But not what it's _all_ about. You’re no siren worth your salt if you can't carry a tune. Really, that's the most important part.”

This opened up a larger discussion (and a slight amount of discourse) between the three more-experienced sirens about hunting techniques and other such things that thoroughly bored Ralph. He peered back down at the doodad he clipped to his necklace, and decided that discussing his find with these three would be a lost cause.

Ralph smacked himself on the forehead, realizing his own stupidity, “Of course! I should’ve just went to Simon about it first! If any of us would know what this thing is, it’s him!” With this he ducked back under the water and made his way to the crevice in the rock formation where Simon hid himself away.

It was certainly an odd little nook, that was for sure. There were bottles on strings that hung from the ceiling, filled with who knows what, natural shelves formed on the walls lined with tiny jars, and a miniature cauldron in the center. Simon had set up shop quite quickly and easily. It bothered Ralph, subtly, in the back of his mind. How _dare_ Simon go on with business as usual under these circumstances! Was Ralph the only one who cared about getting found?

Ralph dismissed these thoughts, as they distracted from the task at hand. That task being, of course, figuring out what the heck this thing was. But he couldn't do that immediately, he found, because Simon was napping, his body coiled around the cauldron and his head resting on a folded sealskin as if it were a pillow.

“Simon! Psst! Simon! Wake up!” He whispered, poking his friend’s tail.

“Mmm… no… no...” Simon whimpered in his sleep, his snake-like body tightening around the cauldron, “I don't wanna go hunting with you, Jack… I gotta… practice with the… with the potions…”

Ralph swam up close to his head and cupped his hands around his mouth.

“ _SIMON!_ ”

Simon jumped up in fright, electricity crackling in the water around him.

“ _GREAT BARRIER REEF!_ ” he exclaimed upon waking. Then, noticing the golden siren giggling in front of him, his brow furrowed.

“You know, you really need to stop sneaking up on people...” he said in a huff.

Ralph shrugged, “Eh, it’s a force of habit.”

“So, what’re you doing in my eel pit? Wanna sell your soul for a pair of legs and a man you don’t know?” He asked jokingly.

Ralph chuckled, “What do I look like? A mermaid?”

“No, but sometimes I swear you’ve got the brain of one.”

They both laughed.

“No, but really,” Ralph continued after their laughter subsided, “I came down here because I wanted to show you… this!”

He unclipped the glass and wire trinket from his necklace and handed it to Simon to inspect.

Simon turned the object over and over in his hands, a grave expression growing on his face.

“Ralph, where did you find this?”

“I was just out for a swim on one of my usual routes, looking for one of our pods, and I found it in the sand,” Ralph explained, “that’s all.”

“Did you show it to Jack?”

“See, I tried to, but then they started making fun of me and after that they started talking about hunting and I got bored so… no.”

“Good. That’s good. I don’t want him getting any ideas…” he muttered, staring through the pieces of glass.

“What do you mean by that?” Ralph asked, “Do you know what that thing is? Is it dangerous?”

“I don’t know exactly what it is, but I know what must’ve lost it…”

“What? What lost it?”

Simon looked up at him, pure dread in his eyes.

“A human.”

Ralph cocked his head to the side. “And? What’s so bad about that? There’s human stuff on the seafloor all the time.”

“Yes, but if you’ve just found it now, that means that a human lost it recently, and then _that_ means that there are humans within swimming distance of here!”

“... and?”

Simon smacked his own forehead, “ _Jack_ , the nimrod that he is, is gonna want to hunt them. And that’ll be a terrible idea! Humans are high risk and low reward prey. It's why we stopped hunting them ages ago. Attacking a boatload of 'em risks getting a harpoon to the gut, or getting snagged in one of their giant fishing nets and being hauled off to who knows where, or even getting stuck in one of their tiny 6-ringed plastic deathtraps!”

“Ugh! I hate those things!” Ralph said shivering, recalling an instance when he got his tailfin tangled up in one of those infernal traps.

“Right! You understand now! Getting involved with humans is bad news!” said Simon relieved as he handed back the object, “Now, take this and bury it as deep into the sand as you can, preferably not close to here. We can't let Jack find it. He’ll bring the humans’ wrath down on all of us. And Ralph, never go back to the place where you first found it. It's not safe there anymore. Got it?”

Ralph nodded, clipping the strange thing back onto his necklace and swimming out of the crevice and into open water. He swam far away from the rocks with vigor, a new, exciting, secret mission bubbling in his brain.

The only trouble was, where would he bury this thing? Where has Jack never been and will never go?

Well, that was obvious. Jack hadn't accompanied him on any of his scouting missions to find a sign of where their pods might have gone, none of them had. And, judging by how much he berated Ralph for doing it, it was safe to bet he'd never tag along. And the farthest Ralph had gotten on one of those was…

The place where he found the thingamajig in the first place…

Ralph mulled the matter over.

Sure, Simon was right, there was definitely an element of danger in returning to the spot, but at the same time, it was his best bet to keeping the object out of Jack's webby, scaly clutches and keeping him from getting them all killed.

And so he decided, and so he swam, to a place he knew was the most dangerous yet at the same time most secure.

He paused briefly.

Wow, he really did have the brain of a mermaid sometimes, didn't he? Only a mermaid would be so bold, to a stupid and possibly self-destructive degree. Sirens, contrastingly, had a tendency to sit and wait for opportunities to open up, like how Roger had earlier that day with the seagull.

But that didn't matter. He would only be there to bury the glass, wire, and plastic thing, and that's it. After that, he’d never come back. Never.

It's not as if he'd make a habit out of it. There was nothing to go out there for, anyway...


	2. Chapter 2

The area where he found the object was difficult to place exactly. The ocean is a gigantic, wonderful place with such diverse seascapes, but Ralph couldn't help but feel like most shallow open waters all looked the same. He figured he must've been close enough by now, so he let himself sink to the bottom and started digging.

He was at this for quite a while. Digging a hole in underwater sand is something of an uphill battle, after all. The substance is so fluid itself that it has a tendency to flow right back to where it started.

While he removed clumps of sand over and over, he was so focused on the repetitive task that he didn't hear it at first. Well, obviously he did, on some level, but he didn't properly process it as something unusual. It was a low, mechanical humming, and it drew closer and closer and, likewise, got louder and louder. He didn't suspect anything odd until a shadow hung over him, the humming at its peak, and he felt the water trembling around him. He looked up. A great object was looming over him now, and his first instinct was to flee. He swam a bit, but as soon as he was out from underneath the thing, he let himself linger, staring up at it in wonder.

He’d heard about these things, but he’d never seen one up close. His daddy told him about them, or at least said to stay far away from them.

A boat. That's what it's called. A boat.

Ralph was starting to feel like how he did when he found his trinket, only this time tenfold. He was ecstatic and at the same time terrified, the feelings tinted with the thrill of rebellion as well.

He slowly approached, letting himself float near the surface of the water, curiosity overtaking him. When he reached the side of the boat, he surfaced and peaked his head over the edge.

There was something sitting there, on the deck. It looked... sort of like a siren. A little bit. From the waist up. Sort of. Well, the general form from that point upward looked similar enough, but there were no visible scales or sharp teeth or claws at all. The thing looked pinkish and smooth and soft. No edges, just curves.

It wasn't an aerodynamic shape at all, certainly, but it had some odd charm to it. It reminded Ralph of a big, blubbery seal. He smiled at the passing thought of those plump, loveable creatures. His pod would pass through a rookery of them occasionally when they migrated from place to place. They would swim about so playfully, happy and carefree. His daddy told him sometimes they weren't just regular seals, though, they were… something else that he couldn't remember at the moment...

Ralph shook himself, jarring out of his pleasant memories and back to the reality of what he was seeing. The human was staring out to sea, and even though it was turned in such a way that Ralph couldn't see its face, he could sense a cloud of worry over it.

Ralph could swear he saw the head of the creature twitching ever-so-slightly in his direction, and, memories of Simon's warning swimming in his brain, immediately ducked below the side of the boat. He stayed there, covering his mouth as not to make a sound, and waited.

After a few long seconds of nothing, he took another peek.

The human had shifted seating position. Now, from Ralph’s viewpoint, he could see its profile. It rested its chin in its hand, its eyebrows furrowed as it gazed ahead. His judgement had been correct, it did seem very concerned about something. Just what that was, he didn't know, but he wouldn't be opposed to finding out.

This time, the human definitely looked in his direction, and Ralph dropped behind the side again like a stone. Again he waited, this time much longer than before. And again, nothing. No sound, no action, no commotion of any kind. Ralph took the lull as a sign of safety, and bobbed back up again.

Only to find himself face-to-face with the human.

“Ah-ha!” it exclaimed, standing up and straightening its spine proudly, “I knew my eyes weren't playing tricks on me!”

Ralph shrieked and jumped back, arms flailing and splashing the surface of the water in his panic. Then he ceased, holding one hand over his chest and using the other to brush some water over some more parched areas of his skin, trying to steady his heart and breathing.

“Dear Neptune, you… you shouldn't sneak up on people like that!”

The human just stared at him, head tilted to the side curiously.

“That's funny. I didn't think we was close enough to the shore for swimmers…”

Ralph looked around. There was a landmass, somewhat, but it was only just peaking over the horizon.

“The… shore?”

The human looked at him as if it were a stupid response.

“Yeah, the shore. Where else would you come from? The open ocean?”

Ralph floated there for a bit, quiet, not really understanding.

“That was a joke…” the human confirmed after the awkward silence.

The shore, Ralph thought. Why would it think he's from the shore and not the water? Unless…

Did it think he was human too?

It was the only option that made sense, really… but how? Without even mentioning the fish tail (which the human obviously wouldn't be able to see at that angle), there were the splotches of golden scales that ran down his body, his fins that sprouted from his head that only really appeared to be hair from a distance, and, of course, his razor-sharp teeth. For hunting purposes, the siren was always deceptively human-looking to the far-off observer, it was how they tempted sailors close enough to hear their songs back in the old days. But at this close proximity the disguise falls apart, for at that point the facade was no longer needed, as the human was thoroughly entranced by the song. But somehow, some way, this human was fooled into thinking Ralph was one of its own kind...

Maybe that's for the best, he reasoned. After all, if all the bad things Simon warned about with sirens interacting with humans were true, then it would be best if it never knew he was one at all, rather than it running off screaming and telling more of them.

“Where’re you from?” it asked, interrupting his train of thought, “Are you from the town over there, on the shore? We went there yesterday. It was nice. I lost my glasses some time between then and now, though. My auntie's in town searching all over for ‘em, but I don't think they're there...”

It sure liked to talk, this human. But Ralph didn't think ill of the trait, necessarily; it was oddly fascinating watching it rattle on. But it paused, glancing over to him, expecting an answer to the previously posed question.

“Oh, no, I’m not from around here. I'm just… stuck here...”

“Stuck here?”

“Yeah, with a few others, for almost a week now. We got separated from our… our…”

Wait, did humans call them pods? He didn't want to incriminate himself, so he let the sentence hang in the air, unfinished.

“Family?” it suggested.

“Yeah, sure,” Ralph nodded, “our… families… We were out there in the water, swimming, and there was this huge storm…” he winced at recollecting the details, “The waves were huge, the currents overpowering, even for my daddy, and he's the best swimmer I ever met. We... we got swept up. I saw him as it happened, my daddy. I was tumbling over myself as I got pulled away, and… and…”

He looked down at the little conch shell charm, playing with it in his hand. His daddy had one just like it. It was to let everyone know who he was, he said. The leader of their pod.

Tears started welling up in his eyes and he began to sniffle. His daddy was a paragon, he’d been told by so many, the perfect picture of what a siren could be. If he couldn't find them, who else could?

That is what finally tipped him over the edge.

“He’s gone!” he wailed, tears flowing freely, “Everyone's gone! We're all alone! They’ll never find us ever again!”

He rested his crossed arms on the side of the boat, sobbing into them.

“Hey, hey, it's okay, it's alright,” the human cooed, brushing its soft, fat-padded hand across what it thought was the other’s hair, “I’m sure something’ll turn up. Listen, I’ll help you in any way I can. Do you remember any phone numbers or addresses?”

Ralph lifted and shook his head, having no idea what either of those things were.

“That's… that's okay. I wouldn't expect you to. You sound like you’ve had a rough couple of days…”

It turned its attention to the horizon, the sky gradually turning the pinks and oranges of sunset.

“It’ll be dark soon,” it commented, “We’ll be going back to the mainland in a bit…”

The human's face expressed a disappointment and guilt, wishing to be of some sort of help to its new acquaintance. Then it blinked a few times in a quick succession, and its mood shifted upwards.

“Hey, I just got an idea!” it said, excited, “Why don't you come up on the boat with us?”

“W-what...?”

“Yeah! We could take you to the police station, and you can file a report. They could help you find them! And in the meantime, you can stay with us at the hotel. It’ll be super! Last night we found a great ice cream place, you know, I bet you'd love it...”

Ralph recalled in that moment what Simon had warned about. He couldn't get on the boat without being found out, obviously, and then what would happen?

“I'm sorry but I-- I can't.”

The human squinted, its eyebrows knitting in confusion.

“Wha… what? What do you mean you can't?”

“I just can't, okay?!” he growled, then said quietly, “I… I… your ‘police’ can't help me. No one there can.”

The human was baffled.

“Why not?!”

Ralph dodged the question.

“I have to go,” he said quickly.

“Wait, wait, wait!” the human called, reaching out its arm. It was too late. Ralph had already fled back under. However, unbeknownst to it, he had decided to stick around just a little bit longer, swimming under the boat to the other side.

There were some sounds of whimpering distress, as Ralph assumed it looked about for where he’d gone, then it said, frustrated, “Oh, I wish I still had my glasses! That would make this so much easier!”

Then there was another voice coming from the deck, one that sounded much older.

“Won't do you any good trying to look for them out in the water. You can't even swim!”

“It’s not that, I’m looking for something else.”

“What?”

“There was a boy just here, just a few seconds ago, and now he's gone. A… a very strange boy...”

“A boy? What are you talking about? We're way too far out for swimmers!”

“But I did see one! I saw him and he talked to me! But he just-- just swam away!”

“Your imagination was just getting the best of you. That sort of thing happens a lot out in open water.”

“But, I--!”

“Come on, we have to get back to shore before nightfall. Your aunt, she’ll be worried sick. You don't want to worry her, do you, Peter?”

“No…”

“Good. Let's go back now.”

Ralph submerged and watched the belly of the boat as it sped off. He turned back to the direction of the rocks and started swimming back.

There was such a mix of feelings within him now. There was fear in it, sure, but he also felt so happy. That human he met had been so kind, unlike his fellow sirens he was stranded with, listening to his troubles and trying to offer help. What a sweet creature it was!

He stopped himself, tailfin swooping and billowing forward before hanging down limply.

No, not it. He.

Peter.

His name was Peter.

Ralph fluttered his tail in excitement and swam with new fervor, grateful to have a name to attach to the face.

Oh, what a sweet creature that human Peter was!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh piggy's here and guess what he gets to have an actual fucking name!!!! but he's called an "it" throughout most of this chapter tho. it's a give and take.


	3. Chapter 3

Ralph woke up later than he usually did the next morning. He had a sounder sleep than he had in weeks, knowing that at least someone empathized with him. As he rose from his bed of silt, he cast a look down at the object that brought the two of them together, that he'd held close in his sleep, that befuddling plastic and glass thing…

Wait.

Glass…

Peter, the nice human on the boat, he said something about missing something. Something he called “glasses.” He’d seemed very worried about losing them.

Glasses. Glass.

Ralph gasped, tiny bubbles flowing from his mouth.

This thing he found yesterday, it belonged to Peter. They were his “glasses,” whatever those were. He was sure of it.

He couldn't help but feel a little guilty now. He had what Peter was looking for this whole time! It must've felt like he was teasing him or something. But he did wonder how Peter didn't seem to notice it at all during the time they were together…

He’d told himself that night, perhaps to reconcile how he disobeyed Simon's warning, that the little visit was a one-time thing, an accident, really. A very happy accident, but an accident nonetheless. But now, he knew he had to return, if only so he could give back what was rightfully Peter’s.

Ralph flicked his tail and was off, shooting away from the rocks, not at all considering who might see.

He raced to the area where they met, the open waters where he first spotted the bottom of the boat. Sure enough, a boat did appear eventually. He cautiously stuck his head up over the side. And, thankfully, there Peter was, sitting in all his rotundness.

“Peter! Peter!” he shout-whispered.

Peter turned to his direction, squinting. He took a second, then exclaimed, “Oh! It's you!”

The pudgy human waddled to the side of the ship and leaned over.

“You know, I couldn't sleep last night. I was worried sick about you, whether you were safe wherever you were or if you were even real. I… I almost convinced myself of that one, ya know. That you was just a daydream. But still, I made sure we went out earlier today, just to be sure. I guess I made the right call!”

“Yeah, I... I was thinking a lot about you too...” Ralph scratched the back of his neck, trying to figure out how to address the glasses, despite them not actually talking directly about it yesterday.

“Yeah!” Peter interrupted, “and last night, I was thinkin’: if you don't wanna file the report yourself, I could do it for you! I’d just need you to tell me your name…”

“It's Ralph.” He didn't know why he'd said it. He was just trying to be nice, he supposed.

“Ralph…?” As he trailed off, he made some strange hand gesture as if he were urging him forward, “Ralph what?”

“Just Ralph.”

He gave him an odd look. “Come on now, you can't be serious. No last name?”

“Why would I need more than one name? Isn't one enough for one person?”

Peter just stared at him in puzzlement.

“You’re a strange boy. You’re a very strange boy,” he said finally, “When you get back with your folks I’ll have to come along and see who on Earth raised you.”

Oh no. That was the last thing Ralph wanted. He was a good human, this one, but still, such knowledge being shared with any of his species was risky.

“Anyway…” he changed the subject, “I’ve got something I want to show you.”

He unclipped the glasses from his necklace, “I don't know if this is right, but I think these might be those glasses things I overheard you talking about…”

Peter stared down at the trinket Ralph held out, mouth slightly ajar. He took it between his fat fingers.

“H-how did you ever find it?”

“Ha!” Ralph shouted with glee, “I was right! Those  _ are _ glasses!”

Peter felt the shape of them in his hands, “I mean, what else would they be?”

The siren shrugged, “I dunno, I’ve never seen 'em before. What are they even for, anyway?”

The human's face contorted into an even deeper bafflement, but just for a moment, for a second after inspiration stuck him.

“Why don't I just show you?”

“Oh! Yeah, yeah, yeah!” Ralph propped himself up on the dinghy’s side, tail thrashing in excitement, “Show me! Show me!”

Peter rubbed the circles of glass with the fabric of his shirt, and Ralph leaned over curiously. Finally, he would understand this little doodad that brought them together in the first place. When they were free of brine, Peter took the temples in both hands and placed the item on the bridge of his nose, resting on his ears. They fit snuggly, perfectly; Ralph supposed they were custom. Peter's little eyes blinked a few times, looking much larger under those thick lenses, and centered on the siren.

Then Peter shrieked. He shrieked and stumbled backward, tripping over himself and landing on his rear on the deck.

“Peter?” Ralph leaned farther over the side in concern, “What's the matter-- Ah!”

He leaned a bit too far forward, and his wet claws slipped, his upper body falling into the boat and revealing the scaly beginnings of his tail.

“Y-you’re not human!” Peter sputtered, “You're a-- you're a--”

Ralph's fight-or-flight response kicked in, and he tried to turn himself around and flee back into the water, but in his panic only succeeded to flop the rest of himself on deck. He wriggled his body, trying to find his bearings, but at some point simply resigned to his fate, and made no further effort to escape. He lay there on the deck, wondering how he could ever be this stupid...

“You're a mermaid!” Peter blurted finally, then his brow furrowed, “Merman. Mer… boy?”

The declaration lifted Ralph from his funk, albeit momentarily. Sure, he was stupid, but not  _ merfolk _ stupid.

“I’m not any of that,” he griped, “I’m a siren. That's the proper term.”

Peter drank in his friend, slowly. The golden tail that glistened in the sunshine, the huge, long, billowy fins like those of a beta, those claws and those teeth…

He rushed forward and sat down, running his hands down the fish scales. My God, they were  _ real _ . They were  _ really _ real.

“Oh, you're fantastic!” he marveled, “Are there more like you?”

“What kind of a stupid question is that? Of course there's more of us! I told you that a while ago!”

“Well that was when I thought you were human, but now it's--” he squealed in excitement, “Gosh, this is so amazing! An entirely new species!” He scooted over to Ralph's face, “I need you to tell me everything about yourself. I want to know everything there is to know about you and your kind!”

Ralph looked a bit bewildered. “Everything? How am I expected to know everything?”

“Just tell me what you can, then! I really want to know!”

Ralph's tail curled towards him, “Alright…”

“Well, while we’re not merfolk, we’re closely related,” he began, “but unlike them, we’re strictly carnivores. We have sharper teeth and claws, and we're more amphibious. The thing that really sets sirens apart is that we have a certain innate magic inside us. Mermaids can have magic, but it's not as common. That's where their sea witches come from--”

Ralph paused a moment, seeing Peter was a bit overwhelmed by the introduction of the sea witches, “Wait, that's a bit too much at once, isn't it? I'm getting off track. Anyways! Our magic, it manifests in our voices. When we sing, creatures that hear it can't get enough. They fall into a trance, coming closer and closer to us. And then, that's when we… you know…”

“Wait… wait a minute…” said Peter, recognizing the description, “I’ve heard of sirens before. Don't you make fishermen crash into rocks to eat them?”

“That was a long time ago,” Ralph said quickly, “We don't hunt people anymore. It's just too risky. You have so many weapons and traps…”

“Oh…”

“But hey! I don't have to worry about you, and you don't have to worry about me! So that's nice!” He put a claw to his chin thoughtfully, “Well, I mean, you wouldn't have to worry about me either way. For some reason, I can't sing yet, and I'm too young to be hunting.”

“What d'ya mean by that?”

Ralph rubbed his hand across his neck self-consciously, “My singing voice is underdeveloped. Daddy says it's just because I'm young, but others my age can sing just fine. Daddy says I shouldn't worry about it, though. He’s our pod leader, so no matter what happens he’ll take care of things.”

“You live in pods? Like whales?”

Ralph's tail flapped against the deck with excitement, “Yeah! Ours is made up of a few different ones, actually! There's some that are part eel, some part squid or cuttlefish, but my daddy leads them all! He's so cool!”

“Wow, you're really proud of your dad, ain't you?” Peter observed.

“Yeah, he does such awesome stuff! What does your dad do?”

“He's dead. So’s my mom.” It came out in a rush. It was something he must've had to clarify often.

“Oh, I’m sorry…”

“No, no, it's okay!” he added feverishly, “They died when I was just a baby, so I don't really remember them…”

“I never knew my mom either…” Ralph admitted, “I honestly don't even know what happened to her. Daddy's never told me.”

Both ruminated on the sadness of that for a minute.

“Hey, can you push me back into the water?” asked Ralph after a while, “My skin is starting to dry up from laying on this deck here…”

“Oh, of course!” Peter replied. He grabbed the tail as Ralph crawled on his hands over the side of the boat.

“You have such beautiful scales, by the way,” he commented.

“Oh! Uhh, thank you!” said Ralph as he turned his head back. Then he dove in, and the tail slipped out of Peter’s arms and disappeared over the side with a large splash.

“Peter!” a voice below deck exclaimed. Feet stomped up wood steps frantically.

“I have to go,” said Ralph with wide, panicked eyes.

He almost swam away, but Peter pleaded, “Wait, wait!” The siren took pause.

“Will you come back tomorrow?”

“Um, sure, whatever you want.”

“Same time?”

“Sure!”

“Alright then, it's a date. It was nice talking to you, Ralph.”

“Yeah, it was nice talking to you too!”

Ralph turned to leave, but Peter remembered something and called out, “Oh, I almost forgot! Thanks for finding my glasses! That was very nice of you!”

Ralph smiled, then finally sunk beneath the waves. This was fortunate timing, as the captain of the dinghy had just arrived.

“Peter, what is going on up here?! What was all that racket?! I thought you might have fallen in!”

“I'm sorry sir,” he apologized immediately.

“It's alright, it's alright. As long as you’re safe. What were you even doing that made all that noise? I thought I heard something fall on the deck earlier, too...”

Peter bit his nail pensively, wondering if he should confess his wondrous encounter.

“Sir?” he said finally.

“What?”

“I saw something again today.”

The captain sighed, “This isn't your mystery swimmer, is it?”

“Well, uh, yes, but…”

Peter stopped himself, knowing how ridiculous what he was about to say was, but he figured he might as well finish.

“... but he was a mermaid! A-and he fell into the boat!”

The captain stared at him a moment. “Okay, now I know you're lying, but I don't understand why. What  _ really _ happened? Did you drop a tackle box in the water or something? Because I can get a new one…”

“I'm telling the truth! There was a mermaid on the boat! He gave me my glasses!”

The captain seemed a bit annoyed dealing with a child. “You know who’d really like to hear about this? Your aunt. Why don't you save the story for her when we get back, okay?”

“Okay…” said Peter as his head drooped, the captain already walking back to drive the ship back to shore.

Ralph watched as the boat sped away. Oh boy, this was becoming a habit, was it? But, somehow, he didn't feel bad about that. Somehow, despite everything he was taught, he grew to like this human. And what was the shame in that? They were friends, a siren and a human! He almost had the urge to rub it in Simon's fear-mongering face.

Fate made him eat those words, even if he didn't actually say them. For when he turned to swim back to their rocks, right there, hovering near the seafloor, was Simon. He stared up at Ralph with mouth agape.

“Umm, hey there!” Ralph piped awkwardly, “This… uhh… this isn't as bad as it looks…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry I took a year off from this fic, lol. I have a plan for it, it's just that my muse has been taking me other places. I promise I'll finish it, though, even if it takes me a while...


End file.
